Mornings in Oaxaca (during November) is freshy. Please don’t forget to bring your jacket in the morning to be prepared for the evening for this trip. IT WILL get chilly by the time the sun’s out. Sometimes, people decided to leave their jacket and suffer in the evening. Well, let’s just be prepared for the weather;)
Mercado Benito Juárez
Morning walks has always been my “must-do” during my travel. So before the tour started, I decided to walk several block from my hostel to this huge market. They have so many handcraft shops, food stalls, to fresh meats.
Mercado 20 de Noviembre
It’s heaven of fooood<3 Cheap breakfast? Grab one here! You can get all those agua fresca (fresh flavored water) just for 30 pesos ($1.5). My favorite will always be the horchata!!! I still can’t move on. For those of you who don’t know, agua horchata is literally translated as rice water. And, they make it with crunched walnut… Can’t even expect more than this. Drool.
Árbol del Tule
The day tour started at 10am, they have a pickup from the hostel, damn the service is so great. The hostel that I stayed in was Casa de Don Pablo, they have some choices of tours during the week, super recommendable. The ride was directly to this humongous tree, it took us around 25 minutes to get there.
By the time we arrived with that tourist bus, we went to the ticket box to buy an entry ticket. No tickets are included in the tour! I mean, there are no major differences if you don’t wanna buy the ticket because you can still see the tree from farway (but without details of the unique trunk). The wind was so chill that time, even though it was sunny.
Fresh Cotton Home Industry
I feel like I’m in New Zealand! Even though the production process doesn’t start with shaving sheep, we were shown how they made all their cotton products from scratch. They are actually just a home-sized factory, you can count those knitting machine. They also made their own coloring naturally, everything eco-friendly❤ I love it!
Despite that, they sell everything crazy overprized for tourist. I mean I didn’t buy anything, so it doesn’t matter. Along the way, they told us that they still teach their kids how to knit since they’re in kindergarten. Aww! I wish I could see them doing it. Preserving cultures is important!!!
Mezcal El Rey de Matatlán
You’re haven’t been to Oaxaca if you don’t do mezcal tasting!! Oaxaca is well known for their mezcal production compared to other states in Mexico. We started the short tour by listening to the production process, ranging from grinding to fermentation. The machineries are very limited; I think that’s only for display purposes.
Then, it continues to the tasting. There were so many types of mezcal though, from the regular, aged, to flavored. Try to drink them little by little;)
Zona Arqueológica de Mitla
After those alcohols I think you better rest for a bit in this 20-minute ride to Mitla. The sun was heating my beige sweater that time; we were split into 2 groups, English and Spanish speaking tour. And of course, the one in Spanish is much more complete than the English!! The tour was generally fine; the Spanish refurbished Mitla on 1520s as a religious complex, they said. Entrance fee is not included, remember! Just 60 pesos ($3.2USD) anyways;)
Hierve el Agua
“What even? A frozen waterfall?”, I thought.
Entrance fee: 20 pesos ($1USD). Indeed guys, it’s a petrified waterfall that form from mineral water which touches the karstic limestone. That is the reason why those crystals were formed on the mountain’s edge. Besides, you can also see the 3 mineral pools that sit beside the cliff. It is rich of calcium carbonate, magnesium, and a bit of sulphur that creates a yellow hue.
I also wonder why the name of this place started with “hierve” (in Spanish), which means boiling in English. Turns out it’s just heavily carbonated but the water temperature is just around 22-26°C (legalnomads.com). And, the water is actually sprouting out from the ground, creating some bubbles on the ground. Aside from sightseeing, you can swim inside the mineral pools too!!
And it’s not the end of the day without a little hike! I went for a 15-minute hike to see the other part, which is the cascada chica. You can see the smaller petrified waterfall with a worm point of view, so wonderful!
That’s a wrap for the day trip! Just make sure you bring some extra money for some entrance fee. Love you guys<3
chromatic voyage 